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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Back & Forth

Objective: To practice falling; to practice repeated quick blasts of power/sprinting; to practice getting up off the floor quickly; to get a good workout

Typical length of drill: 7 minutes timed (or more if you want to give them a really good workout)

Materials needed: Minimum four cones, and a time-keeper/whistler. If you have a large group of skaters in a small space and you divide them in half, you will need a minimum of six cones.

Skill level required: None

Description: This is a variation on the classic sprints and there is a diagram under the description to help you visualize the set up of the room. First, set up your four cones in the four corners of the room/space, leaving about 3 meters between the cones and the wall (or however many meters/feet you feel that your skaters need to comfortably slide without hitting the wall). Then, have all your skaters line up next to each other along the wall, with at least one arm's distance between them. Before you start the drill specify to the skaters what slide/fall they are expected to be doing at the cones. On the first whistle the timer starts and all the skaters sprint to the cones at the other side of the room and do the specified slide, after which they immediately lay down on their stomachs where they stopped. Once everyone has laid down, the time-keeper blows the whistle and all the skaters sprint to the other side where they again do the specified slide and then get on their stomachs. Once everyone has laid down, the time-keeper blows the whistle again and the sprinting-sliding-stomaching repeats until the end of the timed minutes. The idea is for this to be a quick drill where everyone is sprinting, sliding, getting down, getting up, sprinting, sliding, getting down, getting up, etc. etc. as quickly as possible. The coach can remind the skaters that the quicker you get to the other side the more down-time you have to "relax" while you wait for the other skaters to finish. This drill is different from sprints because it's not at your own pace, it's more of a team effort, where everyone waits for each other to finish before going the next round.

Normal cone set-up:

--------------------------*falling zone*o o

o o*falling zone*
-------------------------

If you have a large number of skaters or are dealing with a really narrow or small space you may want to split the room in half and have half the skaters start in the middle of the room and the other half start at the wall. On the whistle the skaters all skate in the same direction but they never hit each other because they only skate a half-distance before sliding, stomaching, and turning around to go in the other direction.

Cone set-up for a split space:

-------------------------*falling zone*o o

o *falling zone* o

o o*falling zone*
--------------------------

Additional notes: I learned this drill while skating with New Hampshire Roller Derby. I don't know who the originator of the drill is so I apologize for not being able to give appropriate credit. I really like this drill a lot. It gives you a good workout, it's an easy way to practice getting up quickly and using your tripod (= using your toestop to stand up), it's a great way to build muscle memory for correct falls because you're repeating the same fall over and over again, and people often start cheering for each other during this drill, giving their teammates support like "You can do it!" and "Push yourself!" It can be done in small practice spaces, and although I recommend having someone who is NOT participating keeping the time and whistling, it is possible to do this as a skater-coach.